Dental Council Condemns Quota System; Action Hailed by Anti-defamation League

November 24, 1946

New York (Nov. 22)

Justice Meir Steinbrink, national chairman of the Anti-Defamation League, today expressed gratification at the action of the Council on Dental Education of the American Dental Association in circularizing deans of dental schools throughout the country that it was opposed to use of quotas based on the applicants’ racial or religious antecedents.

The Council’s action ends a situation which developed last February, when the Anti-Defamation League made public a memorandum sent to the dental colleges at Columbia and New York Universities by the secretary of the Council, which was interpreted as favoring the use of quotas.

In his circular letter to the deans, Dr. J. Ben Robinson, chairman of the Council, wrote: “Former statement issued by the council have been interpreted to mean that it favors the establishment of quotas that would limit the opportunities of certain groups of our population because of creeds or ethnic origins. The council wishes to disavow unequivocally the existence of any such thought or intention in the purpose of any of its announcements.”